Greek Moods – Aphrodite Era (ARC Music EUCD 2589, 2015)
Ennio Moricone is probably the most familiar composer you didn’t know you knew. His primary backdrop was the “Spaghetti Western,” most prominently the Clint Eastwoody-subgenre in which the dialogue didn’t quite match the mouth movements due to overdubs, a la “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” the theme of which you can undoubtedly whistle, and the Old West in the U.S bore an uncanny resemblance to “Magna Graecia,” that being southern Italy for a thousand years. Morricone and spaghetti both hail from Italy, but Italy learned much from the earlier culture of Greece, which colonized the bottom third of Italy proper and Sicily in ancient times. Their influence stuck, and so, today, our best reference for traditional Greek music here in the West is probably widely-disseminated by Spaghetti Western film soundtracks.
There is a similar, interesting story about how “liquamen,” a pickled fish sauce popular with the Caesars, traveled to Thailand and then back to England and America as “Worcestershire Sauce,” but it is not relevant here. What is relevant here is that Greek composer Michael Terzis creates beautiful, small ensemble, traditional Greek music balancing between folk and orchestral. ARC, his label for this release, thrives on this tightrope, utilizing unmatchable production quality with exquisite taste to distribute highly exciting, yet at the same time, educational CDs.
Intending no disrespect to France, Greece is a majority stockholder in our romantic heritage. Our philosophy and science began there. If our religion has digressed tremendously from Hellenic tales of Zeus et al, those characters and their doings are still close to our hearts and daily analogies. Perhaps most important for current listeners is the economic factoid that, were the world leveled in terms of income, we would all live today on approximately the standard of a Greek fisherman. We would share in expenses for keeping a car or two running in the neighborhood while doing a lot of walking and bicycling. We would have limited wardrobes and repair rather than replace. We would gather as neighbors or community for films, celebrations and public projects.
Of course, we would not have the view of the Aegean, nor the romance or pride in personal accomplishment that Greek fishermen experience daily. That’s what’s in this record … the expanse of the capricious sea, the irreversible nature of actions when one has little margin for error and the significance of every decision. That’s what this composer puts into words in the language of music for us with this release. We can all be Clint Eastwood. Or Theseus.
You will be glad to own it.
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Author: Arthur Shuey
Arthur has been reviewing music for publications since 1976 and began focusing almost exclusively on world music in 2012.
His musical background includes past presidencies of the Cape Fear Musicians Association and Blues Society of the Lower Cape Fear, founding membership in nine other blues societies, service on 17 music festival planning committees, two decades of teaching harmonica to individuals and groups, operating a small recording studio and performing solo and in combos for 30 years.
Arthur has written professionally since 1975, pieces ranging from short fiction to travel articles, humor to poetry, mainly for local and regional entertainment media. His blog,” Shuey’s World,” is featured at www.accesswilmington.com.
